Today, I found my flute has a rift on the joint part.
I bought my flute on September last year, and it is secondhand.
I am living in Taiwan, and it is wet and humid in my country.
I found that it is hard to join the head part and body part if I played it frequently.
It is always to tight to connect.
Today, I found the body part has a rift on the joint.
This so breaks my heart.
I want ask that are the wooden flutes hard to be maintained in humid place??
Or can the flute maker make more loose joint for humid place.
That is sad news indeed. I have also had my flute cracked, but I live in a drier climate. I have never heard of a flute cracking in a humid climate, but I am no expert.
Sorry for your sadness, but be comforted. A crack in a tenon does not normally create much of a problem. Because the force is compressive (inwards), the crack is forced closed when the flute is assembled. A crack in a socket is much more of a problem, because it is expanded when the flute is assembled.
I guess Taiwan has a considerably higher humidity than Ireland (most other places are much drier!). This makes the tenons swell, making the joint tighter. The sockets swell too, but as the ring stops the sockets swelling outwards, they are forced to swell inwards, making the joints even tighter. It would be wise to relieve that pressure, as it might be enough to crack the wood of the sockets, and as I said above, that is much more of a problem.
This is an easy fix for a tenon crack. Turn down the tip of the tenon to a smaller diameter, and install a ring, which can be of matching wood, or metal. That will stabilise the crack. You should be able to find a good clarinet repair person in Taiwan who could do all of that. If not, a machinist could do it with a bit of guidance.
You could send it back to the original maker, but if you do, make sure to wrap all the parts in airtight plastic food wrap, so that the maker gets to see the flute at your humidity. Ask them to work on it as soon as it arrives so that it doesn’t dry out!
Alternatively, you could take the cork off and wrap with waxed thread. If there are not grooves to locate the thread at the bottom of the cork trough, put a first layer of thread on (loosely) and dab it with glue to secure it to the wood in many places. It will then provide a base to locate later layers.
